Game of Thrones returns for a fifth season

The new season of Game of Thrones is set to be bloodier than ever as the race for the Iron Throne intensifies.

Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister in Game of Thrones. Courtesy HBO

Pacifists take note – a kinder, gentler Game of Thrones can never be. Change the channel now if that's what you are after.

If anything, season five of the HBO series, which begins on OSN First HD on Monday, April 13, is likely to be bloodier and more brutal than ever.

After the deaths of twisted King Joffrey and his nasty grandfather Tywin Lannister (not to mention Oberyn Martell, Shae and many, many more) last season, there is a power vacuum to fill at King’s Landing – and the bloodlust and mad ambition for the Iron Throne will be white-hot.

“Last year felt like a warm-up,” says Michiel Huisman, the Dutch actor who plays Daario Naharis, the mercenary hunk who holds Mother of Dragons Daenerys Targaryen’s dance card, so to speak. “This year, we’re ready for the ­battle.”

So what’s in store for our favourite characters when the action ­resumes?

In Meereen, Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) finds herself neck-deep in danger with but a tenuous hold on her wild, wild city – and three dragons, now fully grown and with murderous appetites of their own.

At Castle Black, Jon Snow (Kit Harington) struggles to balance his Night’s Watch duties with the demands of wannabe king Stannis Baratheon (Stephen Dillane).

Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey), meanwhile, finds herself clawing to hang on to power following the murder of her father by her brother, Tyrion, while trapped between the formidable Tyrell family and a newly powerful religious faction.

Having set sail across the Narrow Sea, Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) is searching for an old friend, while Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) – on the run with “the spider” Lord Varys (Conleth Hill) after killing his ex-lover Shea and his father – may align himself with a new cause.

While the first four seasons felt as if each faction was spinning its own medieval tapestry, there’s now a sense the threads are tighter and intertwining as we move closer to a bloody day of reckoning, with the armies loyal to the houses of Lannister, Baratheon, Targaryen, Stark and Tyrell marching ever-closer towards the endgame. Not surprisingly, this will also be the season that empowers its women like never before.

“It’s a very different Arya this year from the one that I auditioned for years ago,” says Maisie Williams, whose teenage warrior has struck out on her own and was last seen setting off for Braavos after leaving the grievously wounded Hound for dead after his clash with Brienne of Tarth.

“After what felt like four seasons of sitting and crying, Sansa was able to shed this skin and really become a woman,” says Sophie Turner, who plays Arya’s older sister. “You’ve only seen her as a girl, but now she’s a force to be reckoned with.”

Even the Mother of Dragons is maturing.

“Dany’s getting closer and closer to the throne in terms of being a leader,” says Clarke. “She’s got a lot more experience under her belt and a lot more fire in her belly … and she just lost [her trusted adviser] Jorah,” after she discovered he had initially been sent to spy on her.

New alliances and break-ups are inevitable as the new storylines play out. Tyrion’s bodyguard and enforcer, the sword-for-hire Bronn, played with bad-boy élan by Jerome Flynn, will surely face a new sparring partner, now that his diminutive liege has been spirited out of King’s Landing by the cunning Lord Varys.

“I don’t get to hang out with Peter [Dinklage] this year,” says Flynn, sadly. “But I hold out hope that we’ll be reunited somewhere along the way. That’s my fantasy.”

The most comical combo, apparently, will be Tyrion and ­Varys.

"Remember The Love Boat?" asks Hill. "That's Tyrion and Varys sailing across the Narrow Sea. It's a bit of a road movie for a few episodes."

One new face to watch out for this season is Jonathan Pryce as the High Sparrow, a pious, devout papal-style fellow who comes to King’s Landing to serve the downtrodden – and whose followers swarm the city, decrying the corruption of the ­Lannisters.

The fallout from last season’s gory, eye-popping death of prince Oberyn Martell will bring new faces from his clan to the fore and give us a first look at life in Dorne. They include Keisha Castle-Hughes as Obara Sand, a fearsome warrior and daughter of the late Prince; Alexander Siddig as his older, more even-tempered brother Doran Martell, the ruling lord of Dorne; and Toby Sebastian as Trystane Martell, the heir to Dorne.

Smug smarty-pants who have read the books and think they know who will be put to the sword this season should brace themselves for some shocking deaths, according to creator and author George R R Martin, who says that the fact that a character is still alive and kicking in his novels is no longer a guarantee that he or she will survive on the telly.

“People are going to die who don’t die in the books, so even the book readers will be unhappy,” he says. “So everybody better be on their toes. [Series co-creators] David [Benioff] and D B [Weiss] are even bloodier than I am.”

Game of Thrones is broadcast at 5am (the same time as in the United States) and then at 11pm on Mondays on OSN First HD